Winter Park Endorses Showalter Track Fund-raising Effort

WINTER PARK — The city commission Tuesday endorsed a plan to raise up to $225,000 to resurface the track at the city's Showalter Field.

Commissioners also agreed to contribute $500 to a suit challenging a ruling that cities pay time-and-a-half when employees work overtime.

The resurfacing is one of many improvements planned for the sports stadium on Cady Way to help prepare for the Pan American Junior Athletics Championship scheduled there next summer. The Greater Orlando Sports Organizing Committee is host for the event.

Phil Newlon, event chairman and a track coach at Edgewater High School, said the new track will benefit not only the games but all track events at the stadium. The surface will be more durable and easier to repair, he said.

''I'm a high school coach in the area and I'm interested in this for all our events. This other meet is just a catalyst for this. We feel we have an event now that can cause this to be done,'' Newlon said.

Three types of surface are being considered, Newlon said. The most expensive is a polyurethane surface that would cost $170,000 to $225,000. ''We feel this would be the best surface we could put down,'' Newlon said in an Oct. 10 letter to City Manager David Harden.

An acrylic type surface would cost about $125,000, while surfacing with a rubber and asphalt hot mix would cost about $90,000.

Newlon said the decision on the surface will depend on how much money is raised from solicitations in Central Florida. The commission's endorsement will aid the fund-raising effort, he said.

Some commissioners worried the new surface would be more susceptible to damage.

Newlon said the life of the polyurethane surface is about 10 years and although the cost is high the long life would mean savings for the city.

Bill Carrico, parks and recreation director, said the track is beginning to deteriorate and it will not be long before a new surface is needed.

The commission also agreed to join municipalities around the country in a challenge of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that state and local governments must pay time-and-a-half for overtime instead of allowing employees to take compensatory time or paying them at the normal hourly rate for the extra hours worked.

Harden said the ruling caused an addition of about $200,000 to the city's fiscal 1986 budget, which took effect Oct. 1.

The National Institute of Municipal Law Officers has filed a complaint with the federal district court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of 113 cities that have contributed money to the suit.

Winter Park will pay $500 for the suit, which seeks to exempt all municipal employees -- especially police officers and firefighters who accrue the most overtime -- from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court is also being asked to rule that some provisions of the act are an unconstitutional attempt to regulate state and local government services.

Harden said he believes the city should continue giving premium pay for overtime, but it would save a lot of money if it could administer overtime in its own fashion instead of being controlled by provisions of the act.

''Even if the chance of success of this litigation is only marginal, the potential benefits to the city if it succeeds are quite large and the costs of participation in the lawsuit are very small by comparison at $500,'' Harden said in an Oct. 21 memo to the commission.